Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the perception of pre-service social studies teachers (PSSTs) about the concept of election via metaphors. A study group of this work consisted of 61 PSSTs from NiÄŸde University, Faculty of Education, Social Studies Teaching Department. Implementation and data collection was done in 2014 to 2015 academic year. Thoughts of PSSTs about the concept of the election were analyzed by metaphorical analysis and content analysis. The PSSTs produced 42 metaphors and from an analysis of these metaphors, 8 categories were identified: election as a source of preference, election as a source of fallacy/time wasting, election as a source of diversity, election as a source of rivalry/race, election as a source of impact, election as a source of uncertainty, election as a source of tranquility, and election as a source of expectation.

Key words: Social studies, pre-service social studies teachers, election, and metaphor.